The Bird in Hand
by Partly
Summary: Jack's early morning thoughts on the team and what he wants from life.


Jack did one last circle of the camp, checking the perimeter a final time. It was an unnecessary protocol here on this unassuming planet, a planet, which, so far lived up to its harmless look. The natives were friendly and lived far from the gate. The Goa'uld presence, what little there had been, ended many thousand years ago. They wouldn't have been here at all if not for one thing: a large pyramid. A pyramid that Daniel said held writing of some unknown -- but sure to be amazing -- culture and that Carter insisted held some as yet undetermined -- but sure to be amazing -- technology. They were so enthusiastic that the general authorized a seven-day mission for SG-1 to sort everything out.

Once sure the perimeter was secure; he headed back to camp and set the morning pot of coffee on to brew. With dawn coming, the other members of the team would soon be up. Daniel and Sam slept as little as possible so that they could used every available moment with their noses deep in research. Daniel spent hours on end staring at walls full of engravings and Carter kept analyzing and reanalyzing the samples she had analyzed just a moment before. Both scientists found the tedium endlessly fascinating and their enthusiasm showed no signs of flagging, even after four days. Jack, on the other hand, was almost wishing that they would discover something dangerous just so he'd have something to do. Almost.

The cool air stirred in a light breeze, birds sang in the distance, and he allowed himself to relax a little. He had to admit that after the past several months of constant action a little boredom didn't come amiss. This trip elt remarkably like a camping trip back in Minnesota. Jack walked to the edge of the clearing and looked out over a small valley. It was his kind of place. Not too hot, not too cold. Not too many biting bugs. Just the right amount of birds and small furry animals. No snakeheads shooting at them. The night sky was a brilliant canvass of stars and had three small moons that seemed to dance as they crossed the sky. Every morning, the two suns rose in spectacular fashion, turning the sky an impossible shade of orange before it settled into its normal brilliant blue.

Jack settled himself against a tree and listened to sounds of his team waking. Teal'c never spoke but his measured footsteps were a comfort even in a peaceful setting such as this. Sam's sleepy voice wishing Daniel a good morning carried through the cool air. Daniel's unintelligible response was typical of the archeologist before he'd had his first dose of caffeine. It was the same routine as the past mornings: Teal'c took over security, Daniel made breakfast and Sam cleaned up. His job done, Jack needed to wind down after the last watch. His team knew where he was. The rising of the suns was a sight worth watching and one that he hadn't missed it since they had arrived.

"Sir? Coffee?"

Neither had Sam.

"Thank you, Major." Jack took the coffee and Sam sank down next to him.

"Have you noticed, Colonel, that the first sun is rising earlier each day while the second sun is rising later?"

Jack nodded. "Today they will be three minutes earlier and six minutes later." He caught Sam's look, shrugged and gave her his best 'Hey, I'm only guessing' look.

"You sound very sure of yourself, sir. Care to bet on it?"

That took Jack by surprise. Exactly what was Carter after? "What kind of wager do you have in mind?"

"If you're wrong, you request two extra days of research for us."

Jack may have liked the planet but two more days would get boring fast. "And if I'm right?"

He could tell by the way Sam frowned she hadn't considered the fact he may be right. Was he wrong that often? He didn't think so.

"I'll spring for pizza at the next movie night?"

That was a small bet; maybe he wasn't wrong that often after all. Jack shook his head. "No go, Major. It's your turn to foot the bill, anyhow." He thought for a minute. "How 'bout you help me catch up on some paperwork?" He held up a hand at her incredulous look. "Just with the scientific gobbledygook. Three reports, top."

"Two."

He grinned. "Two it is."

She shifted to get a better view of the horizon. "Three and six, right."

"Give or take a minute?" he asked. "I wasn't planning on a bet when I calculated it out..."

She looked at him, then at the sky, then back to him. "Thirty seconds."

"It's a bet." He leaned back against the tree again.

"Yes, sir." She looked back at the deepening sky, chewing on her lip and then she surreptitiously glanced at her watch.

Jack suppressed a grin. He knew that it would bug her the rest of the day if he were right. He could almost see the gears move in her head and he thought up a quip or two to throw at her, just in case he was wrong about the times. He didn't think he was though. Knowing when the sun rose and set, when the tactical advantage shifted from night to day and back, was essential to keeping his team alive. Besides, he'd watched too many binary star systems through his rooftop scope not to appreciate the intricate physics that ruled such a complex arraignment.

"If it's determined the planet's safe, we should recommend it for study by SG-17. They've just recruited two new astronomers, both with backgrounds in astrophysics. In my last sitrep, I said that we should set monitoring..."

Jack held up a hand. "The general's way ahead of you, Carter. He sent word yesterday that he is sending us five weather stations to set up around the mountains. If the data is worthwhile, he'll propose this as a research outpost. Something about rare pockets of atmosphere?" He raised his eyebrow at her, and tried to look innocent.

"Pockets of rarefied atmosphere," Carter corrected him automatically. "I've never seen anything like it. At altitudes much lower than I have ever seen and it seems to be localized in specific and limited areas. I can't even theorize at the physics that make it possible. Perhaps the gravitational pull of the two suns and four moons..."

Jack cut her off before she could get into full geek mode. "Four moons? I've only seen three moons." He frowned at the sky. How could've he missed a moon?

"Well, actually, sir, the fourth moon is really a satellite of the two larger moons." She paused to take a drink of what had to be lukewarm coffee, glanced at her watch once more, and then studied the horizon checking for signs of the breaking sunrise.

Jack casually checked his own watch. "It still has another minute and a half, Carter." He somehow managed to keep from smiling when she looked guilty. "You were saying about the moon?"

"The fourth moon is very small, and it seems to be caught in the gravity well between the Alpha and Beta moons. It may actually be a captive asteroid, not even worth the name of moon. I only caught a glimpse of it through my binoculars on our first night here when Teal'c and I were up on the mountain. I haven't been able to determine which moon it actually orbits or if it has an irregular pattern around both of them. Its density must be very high in order to withstand the gravitational forces being exerted on it."

Jack nodded and turned his attention back to the sunrise. Carter would be able to keep the monologue going indefinitely and, while Jack was interested in astronomy, he didn't really want an explanation. No, what he really wanted was company after the long, solitary night watch and Carter's running commentary was just what the doctor ordered. In the half-hour it would take the suns to rise, providing the light and warmth needed to entice the two scientists back to their research, Jack would get to add another thirty minutes to his running total of time spent with people he cared about.

And this month was a very good month. He had close to three hundred and fifty hours of time spent with the team. What with this being their second off world extended stay and the various breakfasts, lunches, meetings, training sessions and odd pizza and movie night thrown in. Granted it wasn't 'all-together, all-the-time' time. And he doubted that anyone would claim it was quality time -- especially considering far too many of those hours early in the month had been spent in a small prison cell and then in the infirmary -- but he had learned long ago that "quality time" was nothing but bullshit anyhow.

That had been so very clear to him the day he stood above Charlie's grave and realized that he had spent a total of fifty-three 'quality time' hours with his son in the month before he died. Fifty-three hours out of a total possible four hundred and eighty waking hours. That didn't even average out to two hours a day. He could pad it out if he counted time spent in the house when Charlie was in bed, but that didn't help. He remembered too many times when he wished Charlie would just go to sleep so he could get on with whatever meaningless task he wanted to do. Charlie had been an expert at delaying. There'd always been one more glass of water, one more trip to the bathroom, one more just-killing-time-so-I-don't-have-to-sleep question.

How many times had he said, "Not now, Charlie, I don't have the time"?

Then, he really didn't have the time. He should've been there to meet his son after school. He should've been in the same room while Charlie laughed at those insipid television shows that pandered to young boys. He should've sat and watched his son breathe as he slept and he should've been there to watch him wake and laugh over breakfast.

It wasn't the quality of the time that mattered or how much fun you pretended to stuff into it, what mattered was the time itself. Hours spent in each other's company, just being together. He ached when he thought of the time he'd lost out on with Charlie and he wasn't going to make that mistake again. He was going to take all the time he had and spend every second of it with the people he cared about the most, even if it was just sitting and watching the sunrise.

"Two minutes, fity-seven seconds earlier." Sam's voice broke into Jack's thoughts. She looked over at him, her eyes narrowing into the look she usually reserved for a particularly resilient problem that she intended to solve.

Jack shrugged nonchalantly but decided that he didn't like the way the Major was staring at him. "It's also moved several degrees to the north." He nodded at the rising sun. "That's a lot more movement then we see at home."

Sam's eyes snapped back to the horizon where the sun slowly emerged. "You're right; it's at least three degrees further north. And it's been noticeably warmer the past couple of days..." She trailed off, chewing her lip.

Jack was pleased to see she now directed the 'I've got a new specimen under the microscope' look at the surrounding planet rather than him. "I wonder what the seasons are like here?"

She took another drink of coffee, grimaced, and then tossed the obviously cold dregs aside before she continued. "As you know, sir, seasons are created by the tilt of the planet and its orbit around the sun. Now, on Earth..."

Jack let the words wash over him, listening more to the sound of her voice than the actual words she was saying. He'd only asked the question so she'd stop trying to analyze how he'd known the difference in the rising of the suns. Well, that and the fact he liked the way her voice melted into the quietness that surrounded them and the way her passion for knowledge and life echoed in her musings. There were too many times, out in the field, when he had to rein in his two scientists, force them to break everything down into the most basic terms, deal with only the most important, most pertinent facts. Times when he couldn't afford to let them talk about everything because everything would distract from the decision he had to make. It was only right, every once in a while, to let them talk without censor, even if he didn't understand, even if he didn't really care.

That had been another expensive lesson, this one paid for with the loss of Sara. He couldn't pinpoint the exact moment when he'd stopped talking with her, but he knew it started sometime after his parachute mishap in Iran. He'd wanted to tell her so many things. How she'd been his reason to be alive. How she'd been the one thing that made all the agony and terror bearable. How he'd crawled out of that damn desert because he'd needed to see her one more time. In the end, he'd never told her anything because then he would've had to tell her about the agony and terror. He would've had to tell her all about that damn desert and he hadn't been willing to do that to her.

When he'd come back the second time, after being a POW, there'd been more secrets and fewer things to talk about. How could he talk about bills or a new roof or what to make for supper after everything he'd been through? They'd had no common ground but Charlie.

Then, Charlie was gone.

Soon after, so was Sara.

He'd learned his lesson. He talked now. Not much, mind you, but enough to let those he cared about know he cared. He smiled over at Sam. She was staring across at the valley leading to the village some miles away and saying how they should interview the natives about the seasons. His ploy of distracting her worked too well, she wasn't even watching the sunrise anymore. He checked his watch. This was going to be close. "Ah, Major?" He stood and nodded to the horizon where the sun was rising too fast for his liking. He didn't think he was going to win this one, but a bet was a bet.

"Oh. Right." She had the good graces to look abashed. She glanced at her watch, then at the second sun as it broke over the horizon, then back at her watch. As she did the calculations, she climbed to her feet. "Um... five minutes and sixteen seconds."

Damn, that was more than his thirty-second leeway. He should have hedged it a little more.

Carter was still talking. "Of course, if I take into account that with its northerly movement it's now rising between two rather substantial hills rather than behind them and the fact that the planetary refraction effect is a little odd in this place..." she trailed off, appraising him again. "It would have taken another forty seconds or so to fully appear. You were right."

"Oh, for crying out loud." Only Sam would talk herself out of winning a bet. Not that he should be complaining. He grinned at her. "I'll tell you what, Major, how 'bout I ask for one more day and you help me with just one report?"

She smiled back at him. "Deal." She held out her hand to shake on the bargain.

Grinning he reached out and shook the offered hand. One more day here and help on the report when they get back, more hours to add up in his monthly total. What more could he ask for?

Their eyes met and the shake ended, but they didn't let go. The suns' rays started to warm the air and Jack savored the feel of her hand in his.

Sam let go of his hand and cleared her throat, looking back at the valley.

Jack let his hand drop to his side but kept his eyes on Sam's profile. He could still feel the warmth of her hand. He could ask for that. Whatever 'that' was. Whatever 'that' could become.

But would it be worth it? Different teams, different assignments. No more hours spent working together, no more sunrises and late night watches. Most of the three hundred and fifty hours they had together would be gone if he did that. And what would they talk about? Different assignments meant different topics, different experiences, and different security clearances. Could he talk to Carter about the things that happen to him if she wasn't there to see it? Would she tell him what happened to her if she thought it would upset him?

And what about Daniel and Teal'c? Would they go with him? Would he leave them with a different commander like he'd done when he was undercover working on Maybourne's black bag operation? Would they split the team completely up? Would he spend all of those three hundred plus hours with some other team? If SG-1 wasn't anymore, would they pull him back into black ops or farm him out to a different command? Could he really walk away from all this, just for 'that'? No matter how good 'that' would be -- and he allowed himself the thought that it would be very good -- would it be worth everything he'd have to give up?

And if 'that' didn't work out, what then? He knew how something good and wonderful could be pulled asunder. No matter how much you loved and needed each other, there were some things that couldn't be made right no matter how great things had been, no matter how strongly you still felt. Even love couldn't cross some chasms.

Sam was talking again about the seasons and research possibilities on the planet. Jack forced his mind back to the mission. He waited until she paused for breath, then cut in. "The general is sending the weather stations through today, along with three techs to set them up. They're young, green, and, worst of all, _scientists_." He let the word roll off his tongue slowly and disdainfully and enjoyed the exasperated look that Sam gave him. "Teal'c and I will escort the kiddies if you think you and Daniel can spend the day alone without getting into trouble?"

"I'm sure we'll manage somehow, sir."

Jack grinned.

The smell of food drifted over to them and Jack sighed. Quiet time's over. "It seems Daniel has woken up enough to get breakfast on. We better get going. The weather stations and personnel are gating in twenty minutes. And you'll have to let me know where you want us to set up them up."

Halfway back to camp, Sam spoke. "I wonder what they did."

"Major?"

"The people they're sending over. I'm thinking that making three young scientists spend the day with you has to qualify as cruel and unusual. I just was wondering what they did to merit such punishment."

She didn't smile, but Jack noticed she didn't meet his eyes, either. "Don't worry about them," Jack groused, "It's my sanity that is in jeopardy. I'm the one who'll be here with five scientists. Five! I think the general hates me."

"Just don't be too hard on them, Colonel." She stopped and met his eyes this time. "This really could be a good research station. You have to stop scaring off all the young scientific talent. There is some really cool stuff that we could learn here."

"'Really cool stuff'," Jack repeated. "Is that some new technical term?"

"Just trying to keep it simple for you, sir." This time she smiled.

"I appreciate the thought, Major." He emphasized her rank.

"Any time, sir." Her grin broadened.

She had no shame. He would have to make sure that he picked a long report for her to help him with, one that needed lots of explanations. He would be sure to be very dense and need her to go over things three or four times.

They started walking again.

"I'll have to put my research recommendations in my next report. I'd love to be part of the research they could do here"

"Getting tired of the front lines, Carter?" He wasn't sure why he asked. He wasn't sure what answer he wanted.

"Oh, no, sir. I was just thinking out loud."

Jack wasn't willing to let it go so easily. "People would understand if you focused on research."

She stopped again. "Are you trying to get rid of me, sir?"

"Absolutely not, Carter. I said people would understand. I would think you're whacked."

She laughed. "Thank you."

They stood looking at each other for a moment before the started out again.

"Actually," Sam said, "as good as research would be I'd miss all this. I know that it would be great, but it's not worth giving up SG-1."

Jack slowed and watched her walk into camp. Daniel handed her some food and immediately launched into a list of what he planned to do today. Sam nodded and added her own thoughts, telling him about the extra day of research she had won for them on the bet. Teal'c inclined his head at Jack before he returned his gaze back to the surrounding countryside.

"I couldn't agree more, Carter. I couldn't agree more."


End file.
